Other statistics on the topic. Software Operating systems market share of desktop PCs , by month. Consumer Electronics Global market share held by tablet vendors Hardware PC vendor shipment share worldwide , by quarter. Hardware Global market share held by PC vendors Thomas Alsop. Research expert covering the global hardware industry. Profit from additional features with an Employee Account.
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Single Account. The ideal entry-level account for individual users. Corporate solution including all features. Single-unit PCs also known as all-in-one PCs are a subtype of desktop computers that combine the monitor and case of the computer within a single unit.
The monitor often utilizes a touchscreen as an optional method of user input, but separate keyboards and mice are normally still included. The inner components of the PC are often located directly behind the monitor and many of such PCs are built similarly to laptops. A subtype of desktops, called nettops, was introduced by Intel in February , characterized by low cost and lean functionality. A similar subtype of laptops or notebooks is the netbook, described below.
The product line features the new Intel Atom processor, which specifically enables nettops to consume less power and fit into small enclosures. A home theater PC HTPC is a convergence device that combines the functions of a personal computer and a digital video recorder.
It is connected to a TV set or an appropriately sized computer display, and is often used as a digital photo viewer, music and video player, TV receiver, and digital video recorder. HTPCs are also referred to as media center systems or media servers.
The general goal in a HTPC is usually to combine many or all components of a home theater setup into one box. A laptop computer or simply laptop, also called a notebook computer, is a small personal computer designed for portability. Usually, all of the hardware and interfaces needed to operate a laptop, such as the graphics card, audio devices or USB ports previously parallel and serial ports , are built into a single unit.
Laptops contain high-capacity batteries that can power the device for extensive periods of time, enhancing portability. Once the battery charge is depleted, it will have to be recharged through a power outlet.
In the interests of saving power, weight and space, laptop graphics cards are in many cases integrated into the CPU or chipset and use system RAM, resulting in reduced graphics performance when compared to an equivalent desktop machine. For this reason, desktop or gaming computers are usually preferred to laptop PCs for gaming purposes.
One of the drawbacks of laptops is that, due to the size and configuration of components, usually relatively little can be done to upgrade the overall computer from its original design. Internal upgrades are either not manufacturer-recommended, can damage the laptop if done with poor care or knowledge, or in some cases impossible, making the desktop PC more modular. Some internal upgrades, such as memory and hard disk drive upgrades are often easily performed, while a display or keyboard upgrade is usually impossible.
Just as desktops, laptops also have the same possibilities for connecting to a wide variety of devices, including external displays, mice, cameras, storage devices and keyboards, which may be attached externally through USB ports and other less common ports such as external video. A subtype of notebooks, called subnotebook, has most of the features of a standard laptop computer, but with smaller physical dimensions.
Subnotebooks are larger than hand-held computers, and usually run full versions of desktop or laptop operating systems. Netbooks are sometimes considered to belong to this category, though they are sometimes separated into a category of their own see below. A desktop replacement computer DTR is a personal computer that provides the full capabilities of a desktop computer while remaining mobile. Such computers are often actually larger, bulkier laptops. Because of their increased size, this class of computers usually includes more powerful components and a larger display than generally found in smaller portable computers, and can have a relatively limited battery capacity or none at all in some cases.
Some use a limited range of desktop components to provide better performance at the expense of battery life. Netbooks, also called mini notebooks or subnotebooks, are a subgroup of laptops [59] acting as a category of small, lightweight and inexpensive laptop computers suited for general computing tasks and accessing web-based applications.
Initially, the primary defining characteristic of netbooks was the lack of an optical disc drive, requiring it to be a separate external device. This has become less important as flash memory devices have gradually increased in capacity, replacing the writable optical disc e. In the short period since their appearance, netbooks have grown in size and features, converging with new smaller and lighter notebooks. A tablet is a type of portable PC that de-emphasizes the use of traditional input devices such as a mouse or keyboard by using a touchscreen display, which can be controlled using either a stylus pen or finger.
Some tablets may run a traditional PC operating system such as Windows or Linux; Microsoft attempted to enter the tablet market in with its Microsoft Tablet PC specifications, for tablets and convertible laptops running Windows XP. In response, Microsoft built its Windows 8 operating system to better accommodate these new touch-oriented devices. It was developed as a joint development exercise by Microsoft, Intel and Samsung, among others. A pocket PC is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer personal digital assistant, PDA that runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.
Pocket PCs have many of the capabilities of modern desktop PCs. Numerous applications are available for handhelds adhering to the Microsoft Pocket PC specification, many of which are freeware.
Some of these devices also include mobile phone features, actually representing a smartphone. In , with the release of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft dropped the name Pocket PC in favor of a new naming scheme: devices without an integrated phone are called Windows Mobile Classic instead of Pocket PC, while devices with an integrated phone and a touch screen are called Windows Mobile Professional. Computer hardware is a comprehensive term for all physical parts of a computer, as distinguished from the data it contains or operates on, and the software that provides instructions for the hardware to accomplish tasks.
Mass-market consumer computers use highly standardized components and so are simple for an end user to assemble into a working system. A typical desktop computer consists of a computer case that holds the power supply, motherboard, hard disk drive, and often an optical disc drive. External devices such as a computer monitor or visual display unit, keyboard, and a pointing device are usually found in a personal computer. The motherboard connects all processor, memory and peripheral devices together.
The RAM, graphics card and processor are in most cases mounted directly onto the motherboard. The central processing unit microprocessor chip plugs into a CPU socket, while the memory modules plug into corresponding memory sockets. The graphics card or sound card may employ a break out box to keep the analog parts away from the electromagnetic radiation inside the computer case. Disk drives, which provide mass storage, are connected to the motherboard with one cable, and to the power supply through another cable.
Usually, disk drives are mounted in the same case as the motherboard; expansion chassis are also made for additional disk storage. For extended amounts of data, a tape drive can be used or extra hard disks can be put together in an external case.
Capabilities of the personal computers hardware can sometimes be extended by the addition of expansion cards connected via an expansion bus.
A computer case is an enclosure that contains the main components of a computer. They are usually constructed from steel or aluminum combined with plastic, although other materials such as wood have been used. Cases are available in different sizes and shapes; the size and shape of a computer case is usually determined by the configuration of the motherboard that it is designed to accommodate, since this is the largest and most central component of most computers.
The most popular style for desktop computers is ATX, although microATX and similar layouts became very popular for a variety of uses. Companies like Shuttle Inc. This protects against overloading the supply, and guards against performance degradation. The central processing unit, or CPU, is a part of a computer that executes instructions of a software program.
In newer PCs, the CPU contains over a million transistors in one integrated circuit chip called the microprocessor. In most cases, the microprocessor plugs directly into the motherboard. The chip generates so much heat that the PC builder is required to attach a special cooling device to its surface; thus, modern CPUs are equipped with a fanattached via heat sink.
The motherboard, also referred to as system board or main board, is the primary circuit board within a personal computer, and other major system components plug directly into it or via a cable. Often a motherboard will also contain one or more peripheral buses and physical connectors for expansion purposes. Sometimes a secondary daughter board is connected to the motherboard to provide further expandability or to satisfy space constraints. Main memory is much faster than mass storage devices like hard disk drives or optical discs, but is usually volatile, meaning that it does not retain its contents instructions or data in the absence of power, and is much more expensive for a given capacity than is most mass storage.
As a result, main memory is generally not suitable for long-term or archival data storage. Mass storage devices store programs and data even when the power is off; they do require power to perform read and write functions during usage. Although flash memory has dropped in cost, the prevailing form of mass storage in personal computers is still the hard disk drive.
If the mass storage controller provides additional ports for expandability, a PC may also be upgraded by the addition of extra hard disk or optical disc drives.
Solid state drives SSDs are a much faster but also a much more expensive replacement for traditional mechanical hard disk drives. A visual display unit, computer monitor or just display, is a piece of electrical equipment, usually separate from the computer case, which displays visual images without producing a permanent computer record.
Multi-monitor setups are also quite common. The display unit houses an electronic circuitry that generates its picture from signals received from the computer. The images from computer monitors originally contained only text, but as graphical user interfaces emerged and became common, they began to display more images and multimedia content.
The video card—otherwise called a graphics card, graphics adapter or video adapter—processes the graphics output from the motherboard and transmits it to the display. It is an essential part of modern multimedia-enriched computing.
On older models, and today on budget models, graphics circuitry may be integrated with the motherboard, but for modern and flexible machines, they are connected by the PCI, AGP, or PCI Express interface. When the IBM PC was introduced, most existing business-oriented personal computers used text-only display adapters and had no graphics capability. Home computers at that time had graphics compatible with television signals, but with low resolution by modern standards owing to the limited memory available to the eight-bit processors available at the time.
A keyboard is an arrangement of buttons that each correspond to a function, letter, or number. They are the primary devices used for inputting text. In most cases, they contain an array of keys specifically organized with the corresponding letters, numbers, and functions printed or engraved on the button. They are generally designed around an operators language, and many different versions for different languages exist.
They have evolved over time, and have been modified for use in computers with the addition of function keys, number keys, arrow keys, and keys specific to an operating system. Often, specific functions can be achieved by pressing multiple keys at once or in succession, such as inputting characters with accents or opening a task manager. Programs use keyboard shortcuts very differently and all use different keyboard shortcuts for different program specific operations, such as refreshing a web page in a web browser or selecting all text in a word processor.
A computer mouse is a small handheld device that users hold and slide across a flat surface, pointing at various elements of a graphical user interface with an on-screen cursor, and selecting and moving objects using the mouse buttons. The scroll wheel can also be pressed down, and therefore be used as a third button. Some mouse wheels may be tilted from side to side to allow sideways scrolling.
Different programs make use of these functions differently, and may scroll horizontally by default with the scroll wheel, open different menus with different buttons, etc. These functions may be also user-defined through software utilities. However, these systems were subject to low durability, accuracy and required internal cleaning.
Modern mice use optical technology to directly trace movement of the surface under the mouse and are much more accurate, durable and almost maintenance free.
They work on a wider variety of surfaces and can even operate on walls, ceilings or other non-horizontal surfaces. A proper ergonomic design of a personal computer workplace is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability. All computers require either fixed or removable storage for their operating system, programs and user-generated material. Early home computers used compact audio cassettes for file storage; these were at the time a very low cost storage solution, but were displaced by floppy disk drives when manufacturing costs dropped, by the mids.
Initially, the 5. Vacuum tubes were larger components and resulted in first-generation computers being quite large in size, taking up a lot of space in a room. Some of the first-generation computers took up an entire room. It consisted of nearly 20, vacuum tubes, 10, capacitors , and 70, resistors. It weighed over 30 tons and took up a lot of space, requiring a large room to house it.
The second generation of computers saw the use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes. Transistors were widely used in computers from to Transistors were smaller than vacuum tubes and allowed computers to be smaller in size, faster in speed, and cheaper to build. The first computer to use transistors was the TX-0 and was introduced in The third generation of computers introduced the use of IC integrated circuits in computers. Using IC's in computers helped reduce the size of computers even more than second-generation computers, and also made them faster.
Nearly all computers since the mid to late s have utilized IC's. While the third generation is considered by many people to have spanned from to , IC's are still used in computers today.
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